Ending
by Sky Hunter
Summary: Movieverse, original characters. There are many possible futures, this among the darker ones.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: Transformers belong to Hasbro/Takara/Paramont/Dreamworks.

The characters of the story are all original(except for a few references). Though unfinished as of yet, I hope to have the story complete in a few days. Like with everything else though, it can always be improved, so feedback is more than welcome.

* * *

It is thirty years ago now, I believe, that the first of them came. These days it is hard to keep track of the years like we used to.

Two groups, coming to Earth in search of an object of great power. The Allspark, I believe they called it in our language.

Oh, even now I quite remember the uproar when the news spread across the world. Well, slow at once maybe, after all that trouble with worldwide communications. In spite of the attempt by the US Government to play it down, it was kinda hard to conceal the existence of those giant robots that had wrecked much of Mission City. I guess we were rather lucky that it all didn't degrade into a third world war.

Living way over in Norway at the time, I didn't pay that much attention to the rumors and stories passed around. Of-course I watched the news, like everyone else. And as I was a teacher at the University in Oslo, hardly a day went by without the students talking about it, along with the inevitable photos and video clips. For the first few months at least. With the autobots, as they called themselves, 'hiding in plain sight' over in the US, news were hard to come by for a good while.

In the couple of years that passed after the events of 2008, things were relatively quiet. Certainly there were several sightings, of strange meteors and vehicles acting weird. A few were covered on the news, others hardly made it past pictures at various pages on the Web. Much of it was of poor quality however, quite like the pictures of Loch Ness monsters and UFOs.

When the 'big reveal' finally happened, I was off with the family for a vacation up in the mountains. Due to that, we probably were among the last to hear about it when we turned on the TV in the cabin after a lengthy skiing trip. To be truthful, I don't believe that I have seen a bigger case of 'jawdrop' ever since. With the existence of the autobots and their treaty with the UN and US made official, shown at about every channel, we stayed glued to the TV for well into the early hours of the morning.

It's just not every day that a person is able to see what seems to be nothing but a ordinary car turn into a giant alien robot. Well, aside from the movies maybe, but it tends to be quite different when you realize that it's not a hoax or special effects. Gives you quite a 'stop the world for a moment please, nearly losing my balance here', feeling.

Despite of such life stopping moments though, the world does have a tendency to continue spinning. Of-course being told that we were truly not alone in the universe did cause a lot of trouble, despite the best efforts of many governments to keep it down. At least we avoided country-wide riots and the like, though some nations and various religious and political factions did make a lot of noise about it.

Me, I tried to continue my life as best as I could. Not that I and my students alike didn't feel rather dazed for months afterwards though. And how could I forget the biggest shock of them all...

Like usual, I returned to work at the end of the 2011 summer break. The students still had a couple of weeks off certainly, but there was plenty of work to be done for us poor teachers. No lack of meetings and classes to be prepared, countless little things that had to be ready when the school year started. Just a few days after I returned to work however, we were all called in to an extraordinary meeting.

Looking back, I believe that I noticed a pair of strange cars in the parking lot when I arrived at work in the morning. Particularly one of them, a very noticeable red sports car that I later found was a Ferrari P4. Not that I made a connection though, even if I did wonder a bit, cars like that not being exactly common. Certainly not at any Norwegian road.

I also recall the rector seeming a bit nervous, which did lead to some talk among me and the rest of the teachers. However, none of us guessed right what she told us at the scheduled meeting just after lunch.

All in all, I believe that I handled the news rather well. And there were quite a bit of staring during the introduction of autobots Stream and Firedrake, couldn't be helped really. It's not every day that you see a Peugeot 4007 and a Ferrari transform into a pair of vaguely humanoid robots right outside the windows. Nor being told that they are going to teach at the University a couple of hours a day, outside of their duties as assistants to the third autobot that had been sent to Norway to represent their kind.

If both were rather friendly, answering any questions asked by us poor, shocked teachers, Stream was clearly the one that 'got' humans the most. Once getting past the fact that he was a giant, transforming robot, he was quite a friendly and approachable person. Not that Firedrake was directly unpleasant, but 'she' lived up to her name, being more of a warrior type than her companion. Not one to tolerate stupidity, she was not the most patient with us poor, slow-thinking humans.

Oh, once the classes started up again after the summer, our new colleagues did take some time to get used to. For obvious reasons, most of their classes did take place outside in the case of Stream. Which was just as well, since his classes mostly consisted of botany and geology, the students often welcoming the opportunity to be out and about rather than sitting on a chair all day.

She did try, Firedrake, for several months. But in the end she came to the conclusion that both she and the students were better off going their separate ways. Though a few of the tougher and brighter ones did sign up for private lessons, determined to try to meet the autobot's standards.

Certainly, in the beginning, I instinctively kept some distance. Of-course I talked with them when it was necessary, though we were on friendly terms, I have to admit that most of the time I wasn't sure about how to view them. Something that started to change during the winter of 2012, when my car decided to die.

Having worked late, it was some time till the next bus was due. So, while heading for the bus stop, I was about to phone my husband in hope of that he might come and pick me up. I never got so far as to actually make the call though, as a familiar dark blue Peugeot came to a stop by the sidewalk.

As it turned out, I was not the only one who had been working late. He and Firedrake having worked on a particularly difficult worm that had infected the school computer network, Stream had just finished as I was leaving. So with a bit of grumbling from Firedrake, who was waiting further up the street, the autobot had decided to give me a ride home. Just one hour, as he said, hardly any trouble at all.

Later in my life, I experienced considerably stranger things. However, the drive home was the first step on the way for me to see the autobots as more like people than machines. If very sophisticated ones, that did talk back.

To start with, the conversation was mostly work related. Though it didn't take long before it turned onto a slightly more personal level. Naturally the autobots had access to the Internet, having found no small amount of information there. Still, that didn't mean that they had a perfect understand of humans, on an individual level at least. Likewise, I have to admit that I was rather curious about the autobots as well.

I even found that Stream had a sense of humor, if with a slightly alien aspect. Not to forget a seemingly endless collection of stories. Quite interesting really, being told about sights and worlds that I would never see. Stream was a rather good storyteller too, often making use of holograms to make it more lifelike. Something my kids fell quite in love with, once Stream became a more regular guest.

Our races having only shared the Earth for a few years, understanding was sometimes difficult. The autobots were certainly very much their own beings, with lives and duties outside of human society. As Stream told me though, a good number of autobots did attach themselves to human individuals or families. Spending whatever time they had available with them, both learning of the other race from this, even true friendships developing in many cases.

Even now, so many years later, I still remember the look on my husband's face when introducing him to Stream. Not that he didn't know about the rather out of the ordinary new teacher at the University. There is a difference between being told about something, and having an autobot transform from car mode in the middle of the driveway though.

Despite the initial meeting, and the fact that Stream did leave some noticeable footprints, they did end up as rather close friends. Once they and a couple of my husband's friends even went up into the mountains for a fishing trip. Though Stream took keener interest in studying the minerals and plants up there rather than in trying to sit by a lake for hours in a row.

For a while, things were rather peaceful. Certainly Stream wasn't always around, sometimes even traveling out of the country when his work demanded it. But still, it was rather useful having him around when he had the time. Once he was even able to take my sister's oldest daughter to the Roskilde festival in Denmark. Something that did spare all of us lots of worry.

It all happened very suddenly, no warning at all despite of the aid given by the autobots in terms of developing technology like satellites. July the fifth 2014 being a date that stays burned into the minds of us older ones.

Asleep at the time when it first started, I obviously missed the reports on the initial stages. Striking first at military targets all over the world, they ensured that humankind would not be able to mount a strong retaliation in time. That done, they turned their attention to their main target, the autobots of Earth.

The time was about eight in the morning when I was quite abruptly awakened by what must have been a sonic boom. The force of it sending a tremor through the house, though most of our windows held somehow.

Somehow I managed to get out of bed, me and my husband doing what we could to calm the children. By the time we got outside to investigate, there was nothing to be seen however. Later though, I would learn what the source of the sonic boom was from others.

Screaming down from the sky, a number of jets had headed for the center of Oslo. Making a few passes, they had bombed seemingly random targets, before being engaged by a larger white and red jet of alien design. After a ferocious fight, the alien jet was shot down, though witnesses did claim that it succeeded in taking one of the jets down. Crashing right into it, they created quite a crater where they impacted.


	2. Chapter 2

Note:

Thanks to CaravanKa for giving some good suggestions for improving the grammar of the previous chapter.

* * *

We were a bit worried certainly, wondering what was going on. Before any of us got around to checking for any news on the radio or the TV however, we received a phone-call from Firedrake. While not learning about it until a bit later, she and Stream had somehow linked up to the phone network, sending out a warning to everyone in Norway at once.

Having quietly gathered their forces for years, probably remaining hidden in the Oort Cloud, a large force of decepticons had descended on Earth. Normally, perhaps they would not have bothered much with a backwater planet like ours. With so many of their enemies there, the temptation to wipe them out was probably irresistible.

In some ways though, Norway was among the luckier countries. The decepticons focusing their main efforts on wiping out the larger communities of autobots first, giving time for large populations of humans time to evacuate and prepare. Helped by autobots who managed to remain hidden, we began our greatest project yet.

For the first hours, I most likely was in a bit of a denial, especially when more information became available. Certainly I was not particularly keen over the idea of that we might need to evacuate. It's just something about leaving the house where one has lived for years, due to an invasion of alien killer robots that gets to a person I guess.

In the end though, having something to do helps a lot in such situations. My family packed and ready, about to go to one of the many busses set up for the evacuation, I went to the University. Leaving my family wasn't easy though, even if it wasn't mean to be for longer than a few hours. With so many invaluable books and other things at the University, I was determined to help getting out as much of it as possible.

Besides, traveling time is considerably shortened when one has friends willing to give a ride in a helicopter during a crisis. Sure it was risky, especially when one couldn't know when a hostile robotic alien might show up, but saving anything meant that being able to move around quickly was important.

Arriving at the University, it was with some surprise that we found Stream there as well. It turned out however, that he was much of the same mind as us. With no knowing exactly how things would end, helping to save at least some of the science and works created by humans was rather important. So while downloading what he could off Norwegian databases as well as those at the University, he also helped to load things into the few trucks we had been able to get.

Probably he hadn't meant to stay long, though his help did save us a lot of time, he did have more important matters to tend to after all. Unfortunately his presence did also attract attention of the unwelcome kind.

Being inside at the time, helping to put books into boxes, I wasn't around to see their arrival. Once the shooting started though, even the dimmest among us had to realize that something was up. To a degree we were fortunate, in that the three that showed up weren't among the truly big hitters from what I have learned later. I did manage to get a glimpse of one as we were running for a safer location though.

One was a rather nasty-looking black one. Its alternate form most likely being some kind of car, judging by the white doors sprouting from its back. Not that I took the time to get a really good look though. Rather irrationally, a part of me later hating having just ran like I did, leaving Stream to deal with the decepticons. Knowing that I couldn't have done much else than being squashed like a bug doesn't always help either.

Fleeing, most of us scattered, going in whatever direction that seemed the safest at the time. In my own case, I and a few others ended up at Akershus Fortress, hoping that the old fortification might offer a bit of protection. As I would find later though, it wasn't as far as I would have wished.

Even in hiding, we could still hear the fighting quite clearly, and it certainly went on for quite a bit longer than I would have expected. Stream always seemed to be more a scientist than a fighter, but he sure as hell kept them busy for quite some time.

Perhaps decades has passed since then, but I still wish that I had been far away when they finally took him down. The span of relative silence that following as the fight ended, was in some ways even more nerve wrecking though. Those very few of us who dared to have a look outside didn't bring back much in the terms of news either. Sure, there was still people out there, heading out of the city. There was a couple of copters as well, and larger planes even further up in the sky.

But then we came to realize that Stream wasn't quite dead yet. Not that we understood what it was right away, a shrill and electronic sound reaching out to where we were hiding. I still remember the chill when we realized that what we heard was a robot screaming. Just the memory of sitting there, hearing what we heard...

They took their time killing him too, though I do not know how long. Nor do I wish to either. Building up our courage somehow, we left our hiding place after about an hour, heading away as quickly as we could. At first, we followed the major roads, if keeping out of sight in whatever cover we could find. During that, several more groups of people joined us, as we hoped to make our way to one of the areas where people had been evacuated to.

Oh, we did get there certainly. But only to find that it had been found by the decepticons first. Survivors could tell us that most had been killed, a very few surviving only because they had been far enough away to flee. Some had been captured and taken away by the attacking robots, though for what purpose no-one knew.

We all left rather quickly after that. Of-course we all wanted to find our families again, praying that we would find them alive and healthy. Still, we weren't going to risk being found if we could help it.

Days, and then weeks passed as we moved from place to place, going by what information we had. Some from when the decepticons first attacked, and some we had gotten from people we met. It was just about then that the first rumors started to reach us.

Little could stand against the decepticons, not with their superior numbers, some suggesting that there was thousands of them. Some blamed the autobots certainly, for having brought their enemy to Earth by staying there. But when the war had made it to our planet, they seemed to have done what they could to help. Many had given their lives to hold back the advance of the decepticons.

And there were the rumors of that humans had escaped. Making it off the planet and into space; on spaceships previously built with the aid of the autobots, or ships that were autobots themselves. If nothing else did, that gave us hope, especially as the rumors also said that Norwegians had been among those escaping.

Having experienced what I had, and knowing that the decepticons being defeated was unlikely, there was more than once when I could have broken down into a gibbering mess. But I somehow kept going anyway, mainly because there was those in my group of refugees that were damn good at keeping up morale. Especially when rumors became facts, as we found one of the spaceship launch sites.

For a while longer, we did wander around, afraid to remain in any one place. With time though, it became an increasing demand for us to find a semi-permanent base at least. There was children and elderly among us after all, among others whose health might not be the best. And so we settled on a rather remote place, well away from any former city and the like. Not that any of us imagined that it was completely safe, but it was quite welcome after walking around for so long.

Well, we did get a few days of relative peace at least. Looking back now, I believe that they must have watched us for a while, maybe even have snuck a few spies in among us. After all, even the most decent human may go against what they believe in if the pressure is great enough.

Certainly they didn't make much of an effort to try taking us by surprise. Though, by the time any of our scouts returned to warn us of what was coming, they were already moving in rather quickly. A pair of jets circled in the sky far above, then a military helicopter came on a low approach over the trees, wind and debris creating confusion.

Frightened, and not certain about where to go, it was a simple matter for the decepticons on the ground to pick us off. I'm just relieved that I didn't see most of the killing, being among the first who were taken as I tried to get away.

---

Why they are keeping any of us alive, I can only guess at. Some kind of curiosity maybe, or just because they can.

Some time after the attack, I don't know how long, I woke up to find myself in what is now my home. An old town somewhere in the north judging by the climate, surrounded by fences that efficiently prevents our escape.

Perhaps a few hundred in all, we try to keep our lives going despite of being prisoners, or maybe pets would be a more suitable description. Certainly we don't really lack what we need to survive, and thrive, to a degree. Children has even been born to some of us, growing up in a world surrounded by fences, guarded by robots that may not view us as more than worms.

For the most part, they leave us alone, coming only to watch us from outside or to bring supplies a couple of times a year. At times though, they'll come to take some of us away. To experiment on, as many thinks to be the most likely. We're lower lifeforms, maggots, to them. But still, perhaps some among them finds a certain interest in studying us, understanding how we work.

Other times, that I would rather not think about, there are those among the younger ones who grow too bold. Wanting to be heroes, to make a difference, they sneak outside to attack whatever decepticon they think will be weak. Invariably, their broken bodies are found dumped inside the fences before long.

We do have some hope however, that us older ones do what we can to bring on to the younger generations. Traveling on the ships that took them away from earth, or walking on alien planets, the humans that escaped may still be out there. And so may the autobots.

Not that we really believe that they have a chance at coming back, to reclaim the planet that was once ours. However, humanity may still be out there, carrying with them the memory and knowledge of what we were and may still have.

Most important of all, they'll still be free.


End file.
